Various oxidants, such as hypochlorite, chlorine, chlorine dioxide and other chlorine based oxidants, are some of the most effective antimicrobial agents for use in industrial and domestic process and services, and for commercial and consumer products. The strong oxidative potential of these oxidant molecules make it ideal for a wide variety of uses that include disinfecting and sterilizing. Concentrations of oxidant species in an aqueous solution as low as 1 part per million (ppm) or less, are known to kill a wide variety of microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, molds, fungi, and spores. Higher concentrations of oxidants, up to several hundred ppms, provide even higher disinfection and oxidation of numerous compounds for a variety of applications, including the wastewater treatment, industrial water treatment (e.g. cooling water), fruit-vegetable disinfection, oil industry treatment of sulfites, textile industry, and medical waste treatment. Oxidants can react with and break down phenolic compounds, and thereby removing phenolic-based tastes and odors from water. Oxidants are also used in treating drinking water and wastewater to eliminate cyanides, sulfides, aldehydes and mercaptans.
While separate-compartment, membrane-containing electrolysis cells have been used to make hypochlorite and other oxidants on a commercial scale, they have not been completely satisfactory at the consumer level (i.e. small and portable). Even though there have been some electrochemical units that we developed for consumer applications using the electrochemical approach, these have proven to be more expensive to produce and have required larger amounts of power to achieve the desired efficacy. The electrolysis cells in commercial use, and disclosed in the prior art that utilize ion permeable membranes or diaphragms, require that the anolyte solution be substantially free of divalent cations, such as magnesium and calcium, to avoid the formation of precipitated calcium or magnesium salts that would quickly block and cover the membrane, and significantly reduce or stop the electrolysis reaction.
Consequently, there remains a need for a simple, safe method and apparatus for manufacturing these antimicrobial oxidants for domestic uses, under a wide variety of situations. The present invention describes a method and an apparatus for making antimicrobial oxidants inexpensively, easily and effectively.